Edge of Betrayal Read online

  She’d slept with a traitor. The mere thought made her sick.

  She didn’t bother to knock—just barged in through his office door and watched as he hung up the phone.

  His smile of greeting faded as he saw how pissed she was.

  “Why were you calling her? Getting ready to sell me out to the highest bidder again?”

  He looked at the phone sitting on his desk, then back at her. Understanding dawned on his face. “You think I betrayed you?”

  “Seems to be your habit.”

  “You’re jumping to conclusions. If you give me a minute, I can explain.”

  It was a trick. He was an excellent liar, and she so desperately wanted there to be a logical explanation.

  She didn’t want him to be a bad guy—not when she felt about him the way she did.

  “I’m listening. But you keep your hands where I can see them.”

  He pressed them flat against his desktop. “I was searching for bait.”

  She blinked, unable to make sense of his words. “What?”

  “We needed someone to entice your father back to his lab. I still have the number of the people who used to send me out to find subjects for Dr. Stynger. I thought one of them would be able to help me find someone suitable to play bait.”

  “Suitable?”

  “A murderer was my first choice. There are three convicted killers in prison right now who were victims of the Threshold Project—men so loathsome they make me look like an angel. I just found out where they are. I thought Payton might be able to pull some strings to get one of them released into his custody.”

  Now the pieces were clicking into place. As they did, her gun sagged in her grip. “You weren’t turning on us?”

  He stood and moved around his desk toward her. “I know you track all my calls. I know you probably listen to every word I say. Why in the world would I use a company phone inside of this office if I were planning to turn on you?”

  “Because you think you could get away with it?”

  He wrapped his hands around hers, angling the weapon toward the floor before easing it from her fingers. He set it on the desk behind him.

  Mira probably should have fought him but didn’t. She so desperately wanted him to be telling the truth. She wanted him to be worthy of the way she was starting to feel toward him—scary, deep feelings that would ruin her life if she let them bloom and he betrayed her again.

  “I’m not trying to get away with anything.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. “I have exactly what I want. I’m not going to do anything to ruin that.”

  He smelled so damn good, she couldn’t think straight. Every one of her brain cells were dancing around, celebrating his touch.

  “What you want?” she asked, sounding breathless and vapid.

  “You can check my phone logs. Listen to whatever recordings you make of me every day. You’ll see I’m telling the truth.”

  “How do you know I record your calls?”

  “Because you are a brilliant woman who has every reason not to trust me. I’d expect no less.”

  She was brilliant, but hearing him say it made a little warm spot in her chest flare to life. She tried to resist being sucked in by it—knowing that his praise had been designed to make her feel that way—but she couldn’t seem to stop herself from reveling in his compliment.

  His eyes were such a pretty shade of gray. They were normally pale, almost silvery, but when he touched her, they always shifted to a deep, richer slate. A man couldn’t fake that response, not even one as skilled as Adam.

  Could he?

  “The next time you want to make alarming calls, you should at least warn me first.”

  A slow smile smoothed out the harsh angles of his cheekbones. “And miss you running down here to stop me and my nefarious ways, all armed and fierce? I don’t think so. You’re positively stunning like that.”

  “And that part where I was ready to shoot you in the foot didn’t bother you?”

  “Once you found out I didn’t deserve it, you would have felt so guilty, you’d have nursed me back to health. Absolutely worth the pain.”

  “You underestimate my queasiness and overestimate my capacity for guilt.”

  “I don’t think so. Everything you’ve done all year has been in an effort to erase your father’s bad deeds. None of them were your fault, but you’ve still worked yourself into exhaustion trying to undo the damage he did.”

  “That’s different.”

  “How?”

  “If not for me, he never would have hurt those kids. I always resisted Dad’s efforts to get me to cooperate, so he’d bring in some kid, let me play with them long enough to get attached, then hurt them until I did what he wanted. If not for me, none of those kids would have been tortured.”

  His big hand splayed across her back, stroking her in a slow, soothing sweep. “Those were the acts of a deranged mind, not of an innocent child victimized by her own father.”

  She looked away, unwilling to share her pain with him. “That’s easy to say. Much, much harder to believe. I keep thinking that if I help enough of the people he hurt, it will tip the scales. Maybe then I can sleep at night.”

  He tipped her chin up, forcing her to look at him. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Once we find him and put a stop to any future pain he might cause, we’ll gather every record in his lab and make it our life’s work to restore balance.”

  Our life’s work.

  That he would tie them together in that way shocked her. It was almost as if he was saying that the two of them had some kind of life together.

  But they didn’t. Not really. Sure, they could work together and even sleep together, but in the end, he’d move on. Or she would. There was too much bad history between them for any other outcome.

  “I can tell by your silence that I’ve overstepped my bounds,” he said. “But I don’t care.” He walked her backward until she was against the office door. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, but you keep looking at me like I’m some kind of passing phase you’ll outgrow in a day or two. But I’m not. I spent my entire adult life searching for my brother. I never slowed or faltered, and I never let anything get in my way, no matter how appealing or attractive a diversion it might have been.”

  Just the idea of that kind of potent force of will and undivided attention from him made Mira shiver. “And you found him.”

  “I did. And do you know what?” he asked.

  She was almost afraid to say, “What?”

  “I find I miss the quest. The challenge. Or I did until I met you.”

  “So the quest to find my dad has taken the place of the one to find your brother?”

  He leaned into her just enough that she could feel his bulk, his power. The act sent a delicious thrill racing through her. It pooled in her knees, liquefying them until his weight was the only thing keeping her upright.

  “No,” he said. “Your father has nothing to do with what I want now.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Sexual hunger blazed in his eyes. His growing erection pressed against her, and she could feel every hard inch of it along her abdomen.

  The idea that she could turn him on made her melt. No other man had ever responded to her the way Adam did. No other man had ever gone to her head the same way, either.

  He lowered his head, his gaze on her mouth. “I know. But you will.”

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Adam craved this woman. The fact that Mira didn’t even realize the power she held over him made her that much more intoxicating.

  He kissed her because there was no other choice. He knew it was bad form to allow physical displays of affection in the workplace, but he simply didn’t care. He wasn’t letting a single chance to possess this woman pass him by.
r />   She responded fast, softening against his body as his tongue swept in to claim her mouth. She offered up sweet noises of desire and clung to his head as if worried he might disappear.

  Adam wasn’t going anywhere.

  He’d been thinking about this all morning—wishing he could find some reason to draw her away from work long enough to taste her again. And here they were, still at work, breaking who knew how many rules.

  Still, he didn’t care.

  He reached past her and locked the door. There were no windows in his office—no way for anyone to see what he was about to do to her unless they had a key.

  Adam lifted her up and inched toward his desk until her bottom was perched on the edge. He kept little clutter on his work surface and was glad of his tendency toward tidiness more now than he’d ever been before. Just a single sweep of his arm, and the desk was clear.

  He laid her back, kissing her cheek and neck as he moved down. The buttons on her shirt were barely an obstacle. He was careful not to tear any of them free and ruin the shirt she had to wear all day, but that was as far as his restraint went.

  Each inch of flesh he bared was more alluring than the last. He kissed his way along her collarbones, then down over the swell of her breasts. The lace of her bra’s cups tickled his tongue as he slid it just beneath the edge.

  Her nipples clenched hard enough that he could see them standing up beneath the fabric of her bra. The pink satin taunted him and turned him on all at the same time.

  He layered hot, open-mouthed kisses across her ribs as he worked the clasp of her bra open. As soon as the cool office air hit her nipples, she gasped and arched up off the desk.

  “We shouldn’t be doing this,” she said.

  “Don’t care.” His words were mere grunts of sound, but she must have understood. She settled back down and gripped his hair in her fists as he worked his way back up to one of her breasts.

  Once his mouth closed over her nipple, her grip tightened against his scalp. She sucked in a breath and it came out as a slow, sexy moan of pleasure.

  His hands skimmed along her ribs, reveling in her curves. She was so soft and rounded in all the right spots—just perfect for the long span of his fingers. He could have spent all day touching her and still wouldn’t have been satisfied that he’d memorized every swell and hollow her body had to offer.

  Her hands left his hair and went to work on the button of his slacks. She had them open, his cock in her grip, before he had time to decide just how far he was going to let this go. Once her fingers were around him, he knew that the choice was no longer in his hands. It was definitely in hers.

  He was going to take her, right here on his desk.

  “Tell me you were smart enough to grab one of those condoms from my place,” she said.

  “I grabbed two.”

  “You are possibly the most brilliant man on the planet.” She worked her fist over him, using a touch so light it made him grit his teeth against the need to beg for more. “Gimme one.”

  Adam did, and she had him covered in the space of a few seconds.

  He should have slowed down but couldn’t seem to find the brakes. His body was flying high and fast—the way he always did when he was with Mira. He couldn’t seem to think about anything but getting inside of her. Right now.

  She was one step ahead of him.

  She stopped stroking him just long enough to unfasten her slacks and push them down. Pinned beneath him on the desk, she couldn’t push them far. There was no room for her to spread her legs the way they were trapped by the fabric, so he flipped her onto her stomach.

  The urge to shove into her loomed large behind him, chanting at him to rush. Take her. Claim her.

  Not yet. He wanted this to be good for her. He knew that once it was done, he’d want more, and if he screwed this up and hurt her because she wasn’t ready, he’d never forgive himself.

  His usual patience had disappeared, but it reemerged just long enough to drive him to his knees. The scent of her arousal pulled him in. The first taste of her went to his head. Sweet, womanly need on his tongue.

  She was already silky and wet, but he didn’t pull away. He kissed her, thrusting his tongue deep to gather more of her addictive taste.

  Her hips undulated. He pinned her in place, forcing her to hold still while he feasted on her. The sounds she gave him were nothing short of beautiful, telling him wordlessly just what she liked and what she loved. The volume of her cries grew until she was loud enough that someone might be able to hear her on the other side of the door.

  He didn’t care. No man in his right mind would interrupt that kind of noise. There was no mistaking it for anything other than pure, consuming pleasure.

  The office went silent. She sucked in a big breath and held it. Her body began to shudder with her climax, and he knew he needed to feel it around his cock.

  With one smooth motion, he rose to his feet and drove his erection into her trembling body. As soon as he did, she exploded around him, gripping the edge of the desk until her knuckles turned white.

  Adam couldn’t hold still. He followed her body’s demands, moving in time with the pulses of her orgasm. The act seemed to draw it out in an endless string of breathless cries and trembling contractions around his cock.

  She was panting now, sweating, her body gleaming from the grip of her orgasm. A gentleman would have given her a minute to recover, but Adam was feeling like anything but a gentle man. He needed to leave an impression on her—make it impossible for her to forget that her body was his.

  He covered her and pinned her wrists against the desk. He could feel her pulse pounding beneath her skin, feel her lungs working to refuel her blood.

  He’d done that to her. He’d made her explode. She had no choice but to let him do it again.

  Adam moved heavily against her, driving himself deep on every stroke. He could feel the force of it shake her body, but she didn’t complain. If anything, he felt her pulse start to speed again, saw her skin flush with a new batch of heat.

  He felt primal, fierce. The cool intellect that had been his constant companion disappeared, leaving behind the animal lurking beneath.

  He bared his teeth and set them against the curve of her shoulder. Her pussy clenched in response and grew hotter and slicker around him. The gentle flutterings that served as the prequel to her release rippled across his cock, and he knew she was once again going to give him what he needed.

  “Adam.” His name fell from her lips, somewhere between a plea and an order. He didn’t know what she wanted him to do, but it hardly mattered. His body was moving on instinct now, driving him fast and hard toward a powerful climax.

  Her hips arched back toward him. He changed the angle of his penetration to pin her down again, holding her where he needed her to be.

  That was what sent her over the edge. He heard it in her voice and the sharply cut off cry that stalled as she held her breath.

  Adam let go of his control and came. He poured himself into her, letting his pleasure consume his world. Mira was at the center of it, a bright, burning star that singed him all the way to his bones.

  By the time the last spurts of his release were squeezed from his cock by her body, he was breathless and weak. His grip on her wrists failed, and it was all he could do to hold himself up so he didn’t crush her.

  His lungs bellowed as he gathered his strength. The sweat from his forehead mingled with that glistening along her spine. When he was finally able to lift his head, he saw the teeth marks he’d left on her glowing in bright red detail.

  He opened his mouth over the mark and used his tongue to rub away the sting. Mira groaned in approval and went limp beneath him.

  Once again, he wanted to stay inside the warm, snug confines of her body, but the risk of the condom leaking was an ever-present worry nagging him. “One of these
days, I want to get my naked cock inside you and stay there for about a week.”

  He saw her cheek lift with a smile. “That would make going to work interesting. Besides, that’s not exactly the kind of thing casual sex partners do—not if they’re smart.”

  Casual sex partners? Was that how she saw him?

  Of course it was. Why would she think of him as anything else?

  And why the hell would that label made him angry?

  He had no idea, but he was certainly feeling something like anger. He did his best to hide it as he moved away from her and went to work righting his clothing.

  She hadn’t gathered the strength to move yet, and the sight of her naked body draped over his desk was going to be with him for a long, long time. Every time he sat down to work, he knew that this was the image he’d see in his mind—Mira’s sweetly rounded ass, the teeth marks he’d left on her shoulder, and her dark pink pussy lips all flushed and shiny from his mouth and cock.

  He’d just had her, and still his erection wouldn’t fade.

  He zipped his slacks closed over it, then moved to help Mira cover herself. It was the only way he wasn’t going to need that last condom, which was burning a hole in his pocket.

  The waistband of her pants was in his grip. He tugged it up but stalled out before the pink curve of her bottom was covered.

  Just one more taste. He needed it like his next dose of oxygen.

  He lowered his head to kiss her pussy one more time, but before he could, she grabbed her pants from him and slid them all the way on.

  Another hot flash of anger ignited beneath his skin. He didn’t like being deprived of her taste and of the sexy sounds she gave him when he kissed and licked her just the way she liked it.

  She stood as she fastened her pants. Her breasts were bare. Full, flushed with arousal, and stained with pink where he’d suckled her a little too hard. As tall as he was, he had no trouble seeing the teeth marks he’d left on the delicate skin between neck and shoulder.

  Those weren’t fading anytime soon, and all he could think about was the fact that any man who saw them would know she was taken.